Religion and Consumerism: The Convergence of Brands and Megachurches in the Postsecular Era
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14422/pen.v80.i309.y2024.004Keywords:
religion, consumerism, neopentecostalism, brands, advertising, megachurchAbstract
It is quite noticeable that consumer capitalism has religious connotations. Brands, and the advertising that displays them, generate a multi-encompassing story, they are the most important provider of stories today. That is why they represent reality, generate existential needs and cultivate the personal identity of the entire population, apparently secularized. At the same time, traditional religions and, specifically, Christianity, evolve towards a more emotional version of them, as observed in the neopentecostal world and in megachurches, the paradigm of the mercantilist tendency of Christianity. By reviling the explanatory rationalities of meaning, the different religious confessions open their mentality to the logic coming from advertising and mass spectacle. As a result, religion becomes one of the consumer products around it, adapting to fashions and the prevailing worldview.
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